The DDLA Episode 4: Flash!
by Jlgjt
Summary: A blast from the past - a vampiric shadow with uncertain intentions - begins to haunt the DigiDestined once again. What is this shadow? Find out in the most mystery-dramatic DDLA yet! Now complete!  Ghostbusters copyright to holders.
1. Part 1: Enemies

**GJTPRODUCTIONS PRESENTS**

**THE DDLA - EPISODE 4: FLASH**

**Part 1: Enemies**

_Date: _FridayMarch 19th, 2004

_Time: _Approx. 7:00 pm

_Place: _Ankokuwa High Command, southern Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo Japan...

Giman Uirusu fidgeted on his "throne" in the building's control center, sighing and wishing for good news in a world that was only now giving him bad news.

The past two and a half weeks had been both tumultuous and very depressing. His Ankokuwa forces had just barely escaped total catastrophe at the Odaiba branch of Tokyo University, after his takeover attempt was defeated and his force scattered by the same group of kids and monsters that had defeated his attack on the Fuji TV station. Though a significant number of defectors from that college had supplemented the Ankokuwa ranks, all his efforts to generate a Digimon army had been thwarted, and worse, the public defiance of his cause had started escalating rapidly.

The failure of the attacks had aggravated a simmering anger against the Ankokuwa power and the momentum Giman once had now was gone. The momentum had now gone to his enemies, stirring up the youth of Tokyo with their words, now supplemented by police ads posting the Digimon as friends and encouraging support. The airwaves were filled with messages deliberately crafted to provoke public outrage and violence; he feared that a citizen's war had already been declared on him.

The more traditional enemies, rival yakuza gangs, now felt empowered by public support to take him on and stem their own losses to the Ankokuwa. Agents of these gangs in conjunction with young troublemakers had already attacked Ankokuwa offices in Osaka and Nagasaki, and the monitoring outposts in Tokyo city proper had either been abandoned or captured by police when citizens turned from informants to tattlers. He couldn't keep his headquarters here, close to the enemy, for he feared one good attack and all would be lost. What Giman needed most was time, time to build up a good defense against a monster attack, time to integrate the college defectors without losing their loyalty, time to find a supercomputer to use, time to make everything safe.

The only piece of good news he got was that a new supercomputer was being shipped to Tokyo from San Francisco, intended for the Japanese Meteorological and Seismic Research Center. Upon hearing this from his San Francisco cell, he told them to "go for broke", abandoning their offices to hijack the cargo vessel carrying the computer, the _SS Crayfish_. Now he was waiting for any word on whether the vessel had been captured or not.

The uneasy tedium was broken by a courier rushing into the room, holding out a slip of paper to take while in a respectful bow. Giman took the folded-up note and unfolded it. All it read was "Fish has been netted. What should be done now?"

This to-the-point message brought a smile to Giman's face, for it indicated that his San Francisco agents had managed to capture the ship. He told the courier to send the following message back: "Wait offshore for Sea Wolf, they will provide direction. Avoid contact with all military vessels." (The "Sea Wolf" referred to the _AS Sea Wolf,_ a former harbor tugboat converted to a gunboat by Giman, occasionally used to monitor fishing activities of their clients.)

After giving this message to the courier, he also ordered him to summon Kobu to the chamber immediately. Giman would give Kobu the mission of prepping the _Sea_ _Wolf_ for launch as soon as possible (urgency was important because the window to pull off the heist was short) to take the supercomputer parts off the _Crayfish _and transfer them to Hub X for assembly. He would decide later what to do with the _Crayfish, _its now-hostage crew and its other cargo.

The important thing was that he was now back in the game. Now if he could get enough time, he could still build his army. For the moment, he smiled with satisfaction...

* * *

_Previously, at the Odaiba school computer lab, Odaiba, 5:00pm..._

"Order... order! Let's have order!" Izzy exclaimed over an assembly of DigiDestined, sitting in the computer lab that had once been an access point to the Digital World. Now it was, at least temporarily the main council assembly room.

When the crowd calmed down, he officially stated that the first meeting of the First Council of the Digidestined was now in order and roll would be called. The list of members was called and each member responded in affirmative: Tai, Agumon, Matt, Gabumon, Izzy, Tentomon, T.K., Patamon, Kari, Gatomon, Davis, Veemon, Ken and Wormmon.

With roll finished, Izzy declared the meeting in session and opened the floor to motions. T.K.'s hand shot up almost immediately, surprising a few others in the room.

"T.K., you have the focus of the council. Make your motion." Izzy replied in a procedural manner, his monotone belying the surprise on his face.

"I move to declare open conflict with the Ankokuwa. The time is right, we have the public on our side, and if we do nothing the initiative goes back to him. It's time we took the fight to him!" T.K. argued vehemently.

"Any to second the motion?" Izzy asked, the reply coming from Davis' raised hand.

"T.K.'s right, we need to take the fight to this guy instead of just reacting to him!" Davis explained, a glance at Kari's face warning him not to try anything funny.

"Very well then. Any opposing arguments?" Izzy asked now, this time meeting with silence. This prompted him to pass the motion to the Digimon, who had the same right of support and objection as the human members of the Council.

"Izzy, I think I speak for all of us when I say we support this. We are facing someone that clearly has designs on the Digital World, and stopping him here will keep the Digital World safe. It may also bring back the Crests sooner than the estimate Gennai gave us." Tentomon quickly piped up. With no dissenting opinion, Izzy declared the motion passed.

Izzy wrote the official declaration: "The DigiDestined, provoked by the gross and malicious acts of violence at the Fuji TV Station and Odaiba College as well as the potential to become a direct Digital World threat, do hereby declare a state of war against the Ankokuwa yakuza organization and its allies. This declaration hereby authorizes any means necessary to permanently neutralize or destroy the threat posed by the Ankokuwa organization, and this declaration shall be in force until said objective has been achieved."

After Izzy wrote and read the declaration to the Council, Matt questioned how "street legal" it would be. "Earlier this week, I got a message from the Tokyo Police chief. He basically stated that they were fast-tracking our special commissions and that we were legally protected for any damages we may cause fighting against the Ankokuwa." Ken answered.

"So we have legal protection in case our Digimon accidentally smash up a building or something in our fighting? I wish we had had that a few months back..." Davis commented.

"I think if it wasn't for the fact that the December attacks were confusing everybody, we would've already been sued. Hopefully, that cover is retroactive..." Tai added.

"You see what they say on the TV? Some humans are pretty loony about what they think of us..." Veemon piped up.

"Stay focused, guys. Any other motions for consideration?" Izzy stated, bringing attention back to him.

* * *

Tai's hand went up after a few moments of inactivity. "You have focus, Tai." Izzy affirmed.

"I propose that we turn our informal relationships with the newer kids into a formal master-apprentice training program with assignments based on Digimon species, and that this system should be implemented as quickly as possible." Tai explained.

"Interesting, anyone to second the motion?" Izzy asked. This time, no one raised a hand.

"Very well then, are there objections to the motion?" Izzy asked again. Matt cautiously raised a hand in response.

Izzy acknowledged that Matt had focus and Matt stated, "I do not think now is the right time to implement such a system. These kids are going to get dragged into our conflict with the Ankokuwa, and I don't know if their partners are ready to protect them if worst comes to worst. It's only been about a month since their partners got to their In-Training forms, I don't know if they would be confident enough in a fight or not. Let's see what the Ankokuwa do next before we put that plan into action."

"Very well, the floor is open for rebuttals." Izzy stated, looking around at the pondering council members.

Tai spoke up again: "I understand your concern Matt, but to fight the Ankokuwa we're going to need all the help we can get. These kids have connections we don't have, know things we don't know yet. They can help us fight in ways we can't; if they know anything about where the Ankokuwa are, they can help in that way, or even just fight alongside us. I believe the benefits outweigh the risks here."

"I still don't think it's a very good idea right now. Both our parents and their parents are holding us accountable for whatever happens to them. I just don't want to be taking the risk of something going wrong." Matt replied.

"I see your point, but we need to believe that they can be an effective help to us. We need to encourage them to be the best assistants they can be, and if we don't let them try we're going to lose some opportunities to fight against Giman and his organization."

"Tai's right. We need to give them a chance to prove that they are just as capable of being DigiDestined as we are!" Davis quickly added.

"Same thing here too! Those new Digimon are looking up to us! We should let them help us!" Veemon interjected, apparently speaking for at least some of the other Digimon.

"I do think Matt has a fair point though. Why don't we wait a few days on this, give everybody a chance to think it over as well as ask the new kids what they think?" Ken put in. When no one objected to this, Izzy asked for a vote on tabling the motion until all interested parties had been contacted. The human vote was 4-3 in favor of tabling the motion (Tai, Davis and T.K. being the minority); the Digimon unanimously agreed not to vote directly on the matter and accepted the results of the human vote by default, not wishing to cause further problems.

Izzy opened the floor to additional motions after the vote was recorded, but none came up. He then quietly dismissed the council, giving Tai the power to chair the next council meeting. The DigiDestined dispersed, Tai with Kari, Matt with T.K., and Izzy with Davis and Ken. All were talking about how this experiment with democracy had worked reasonably well despite the hesitation on the part of the Digimon in participating.

For the DigiDestined, there seemed to be nothing but good days ahead. But even then, a new crisis was begin to form, propelled by desperation and dismay on the part of a ghost of the past...

* * *

_Time – 11:00 pm, Kamiya apartment..._

"Kari, there's something here."

"Gatomon, you're hearing things. Go to bed already..."

"No Kari, **there's something here. **I feel a presence."

Kari sat up in bed, immediately noticing Gatomon slowly scanning the room, her tail ring and eyes glowing in the darkness.

"Are you sure, Gatomon?" Kari worriedly asked.

"Positive. There's a psychic signal I can feel from it, it's around here."

Kari smirked in the darkness, checking around her bed to make sure it wasn't the Dark Ocean trying to take her again. When no obvious signals of such activity appeared, she got up out of bed and turned on a light.

As soon as the light turned on, Kari let out a loud yelp. There were _three_ shadows the light was making, but only her and Gatomon in the room. The third shadow, vaguely shaped like a human figure, suddenly darted in Gatomon's direction. The feline Digimon fled toward a corner, but the shadow caught up with her, and she was frozen in place for a few seconds with the shadow underneath her position.

Having heard the yelp, Tai and Agumon burst into the room, Tai asking what was going on. The human figure shadow zipped toward Tai and Agumon, Gatomon still frozen in place. Tai now yelped as well, jumping out of the way of the shadow as it settled under the startled Agumon. He too was frozen in place for a few seconds, then suddenly the shadow drifted toward the wall facing to the outside of the building and disappeared into the same wall.

"Tai? Kari? What happened?!" came the voice of Tai and Kari's mom from behind, Tai and Kari turning around to see their mom and dad awake with a mixture of concern and sleepiness. Tai and Kari looked at each other for a moment, then responded that they didn't know what had just happened but whatever it was had disappeared.

Meanwhile, Gatomon had become able to move again, and rushed over to Agumon despite feeling a tingling sensation all over her body. "What happened? Where'd it go? What did it want?" she heard Agumon asking from his frozen position.

"I don't know, Kari maybe? How do you feel?" Gatomon asked.

"Tingly all over. Bit dizzy..." Agumon answered, clutching his head to keep himself from falling over.

"Me too. We've been attacked, but by whom?" Gatomon stated.

"I wish I knew. I couldn't move, it just paralyzed us!" Agumon exclaimed, now able to move again. Each of them had been paralyzed for about seven seconds, more than enough time for any attacker to hurt Tai and Kari if they had wanted to. So why the retreat?

"Don't worry, Mom. We'll figure out what happened. Our partners should be O.K. now. You two go back to bed." Kari was trying to reassure her parents. Cautiously, they retreated back into their bedroom, looking back at Tai and Kari as they did so.

Tai blew out a sigh of disbelief. Just when things seemed to be looking up, now they had a new problem to deal with...

**What was the purpose of the apparent attack? Who was it that attacked Kari in the middle of the night? Will the attack happen again? Find out in Part 2, "Dead Reckoning"!**


	2. Part 2: Dead Reckoning

**Part 2: Dead Reckoning**

_Date: _Saturday February 20th, 2004

_Time: _11:00 am

_Place: _Fuji TV building, Odaiba, Japan

"Dad, there'd better be good reason you brought both of us up here!" Matt complained.

"Yeah, I was expecting a nice, peaceful Saturday. No excitement, no drama!" T.K. added.

"Boys, I can assure you this requires your attention. Something's come up again, and only you seemed to be able to deal with it last time." the father wearily explained, looking back at the boys with their Digimon partners climbing the stairs behind him.

"Like what?" Matt asked.

"You'll see when you get there."

* * *

The group of Matt, T.K. and their dad, along with Gabumon and Patamon, passed through a corridor into a small, hot room filled with various audio-visual equipment. Wires snaked throughout the room, and various displays lit up with a number of colors. One person already in the room was calmly adjusting dials and flipping switches, all the while listening to a tape through a Walkman, while the other stared transfixed at a TV monitor with a frightened expression on his face.

"Oh, I'm SO glad you guys are here! I was going crazy in here without you watching too!" the frightened coworker said after noticing the entering group out of the corner of his eye.

"Cool down, will you? Tell them what the problem is." the dad responded, motioning towards Matt and T.K.

"The shadow! The shadow's back!" was all the frightened coworker could say before retreating to the outside of the room. The other coworker looked over, sighed once, and continued on what he was doing.

Matt and T.K. looked at each other. Random haunting voices near the now-destroyed memorial to Wizardmon was bad enough, but the shadow on the TV screens indicated there was a serious problem at hand. They needed to find out what the cause was, or Fuji TV's rebuilding efforts would grind to a halt.

"Why don't you take a look at the screen while I deal with him?" the dad suggested, going over to his cringing coworker and slowly leading him out of the room. Matt and T.K. had moved into the room to let them by, and now they and their Digimon partners looked intently at the test pattern on the screen, noting the amorphous figure in the lower-right corner of the image.

"This is too weird. I'm getting serious deja vu here!" T.K. noted.

"Any ideas what it is?" Matt asked.

"Nope, it doesn't look like the same shadow as before."

"Could it still be a Digimon?"

"It doesn't look like any Digimon we know about. That doesn't mean it isn't a ghost though." Gabumon stated.

"Gabumon has a point. It could be another Digimon, we were battling a whole army under Myotismon, remember? It could be any one of them." Patamon added.

Matt pondered those statements for a moment, noting that the figure in the corner seemed to be getting bigger but not more defined as they were talking. He went over to the tape-listening worker and tapped him on the shoulder; when the latter looked up, Matt asked how long the image had been there.

"It's been there all morning. We've been testing new equipment, and the image popped up again. I've been trying to get rid of it all morning, but it won't go away no matter what I do!" the worker explained in annoyance, before going back to his cassette tapes and the work at hand.

Matt returned to his thoughtful pose. "Any suggestions?" he asked; all he got back were head-shakes. No suggestions and no clues as to what to do next.

"I just don't think the situation is similar enough to what happened last summer. We can't even tell what the figure is." Gabumon quickly stated.

"That might be true, Gabumon, but it doesn't help us any. We need suggestions, ideas about what to do next!"

"Uh, Matt, I think it knows we're here!" T.K. exclaimed, pointing to the screen which the figure now spanned. The figure appeared to have arms and legs, as well as eyes that stared back at them, but no details could be made out about it.

The tape-listening worker, also noticing the figure prominent on the screen, responded with alarm, going across the room to a few switches and toggling them on and off rapidly. Nothing on the screen changed. He next tried to turn off power to the monitor, but that switch didn't respond either. Confused and a little worried, he reached down to unplug the monitor, but the eyes shifted as if the figure had seen what the worker was trying to do, and subsequently the worker got an electric shock as he reached for the plug.

Matt, T.K. and their Digimon partners watched as the thoroughly spooked coworker of their dad exited the room in a hurry, then back at the figure on the screen. "What is it you want from us? Tell us right now!" Matt challenged.

The screen behind the figure began to flash colors randomly, and what could only be described as loudly-amplified static blared from the nearby speakers, driving Matt and T.K. from the room, both with hands pressed against ears and wincing expressions. When the noise died down, they rushed back into the room to find the monitor powerless, the figure gone, and both Gabumon and Patamon on the floor with stunned expressions on their faces.

"What happened in there?" Matt exclaimed, helping Gabumon to his feet while T.K. picked up a disoriented Patamon.

"The figure came out of the screen, hit both of us, dizzy and unable to move..." Gabumon explained.

"Everything OK now?"

"Yeah, still a little dizzy, but otherwise fine."

"Matt, we've just been attacked! We need to let everyone know about this right now!" T.K. exclaimed, still cradling a recovering Patamon.

"I agree. Let's get out of here. There's no point trying to find that thing if we don't know how to fight it." Matt answered.

* * *

_7:00pm..._

"Hmm, very interesting. Very interesting indeed..." Izzy muttered, pacing back and forth in the Izumi apartment living room while Tai, Kari, Matt and T.K. (along with their partners) watched with glum concern from the couch.

"Izzy, stop pacing! You're going to wear a hole in the floor doing that!" Tentomon objected from his hovering position behind the couch.

"You called us all here, you'd better have answers Izzy!" Matt snapped, making the general irritation filling the room known to him.

Izzy stopped pacing and addressed his fellow DigiDestined: "Alright, let's review what we know. Two separate attacks, two different places, same figure, same outcome. Sort of..."

"But what does it all mean, Izzy?" Matt spoke up again.

"Well, the two separate attacks are probably coming from the same... being, source, whatever-it-is. And the whatever-it-is is probably not friendly."

"Yeah, tell us something we DON'T already know!" T.K. objected, rolling his eyes to make the exasperation in his tone of voice clear.

"OK then, let's talk about the 'who'. Or the 'what', as the case may be. Suggestions?" Izzy asked.

"Myotismon?" Tentomon suggested, sending a chill through the room.

"No, we would've recognized if it was him. It's not Myotismon." Kari reassured, referring to both herself and Gatomon.

"Daemon pushing from the Dark Ocean somehow?" Matt tried.

"That's a possibility." Izzy conceded.

"I would think Daemon wouldn't try this way. He would make a dramatic entrance, not try to sneak a way in." Tai countered.

"We would need to check that theory with Davis and Ken anyways. Any other suggestions?"

"Could it just be those weirdos from the Dark Ocean that tried to take Kari before?" Gabumon spoke up.

"It's not them, unless they're trying a new strategy. It doesn't feel the same way as last time." Kari countered.

"No, I wouldn't think so. They only wanted Kari, so they'd have no reason to attack Matt and T.K. without Kari around." Izzy commented.

"A revenge attack? I did help her escape the first time she ended up there." T.K. suggested.

"Would it do them any good to attack you? No, it's not them."

"It could be a leftover from Myotismon's army. There were a lot of Digimon in the army, and who knows if they all got absorbed by Myotismon before?" Patamon piped up.

"Patamon has a point. Wizardmon's spirit escaped getting absorbed, who says that others didn't get absorbed as well." Agumon added.

"Personally, I'm not sure I agree I'd agree with you Patamon, but yours is the best theory going so far. And in any case, it does explain the hostility." Izzy concurred.

"OK, now that we have an idea what we're dealing with, how exactly do we deal with it? It isn't a Digimon we can just fight off or destroy, so how do we deal with this thing before it strikes again?" Matt demanded.

* * *

"Ah-ha! Glad you asked, Matt!" Izzy instantly exclaimed. He turned around and grabbed a videotape beside the TV that had been behind him. He pushed the tape into the VCR on the shelf below the TV, turned the TV on and played the tape. On the TV, images of men in weird uniforms and with a backpack-like gadget on their backs were seen moving through the corridors of a fancy hotel, using streams of electricity fired from wands attached to the "backpacks" in an attempt to catch an impish green ghost.

"What is **this**?" Matt asked disparagingly.

"It's an American movie from the 1980s. The title is 'Ghostbusters', actually pretty funny movie..." Izzy trailed off, realizing that he was getting incredulous stares.

"How does a cheesy 80s American movie help us at all?" Tai mocked, and several other voices join in the dissent.

"Inspiration!" an unfazed Izzy answered, his face lighting up in a manner that usually indicated he was hatching some kind of crazy plot.

"Whadda ya mean, 'inspiration'?" T.K. asked sarcastically.

"It gave me an idea for what to do with the crystals we captured in the Digital World and at the university. We put the crystals into a portable generator strapped into a backpack frame, attach a rubber hose with wire inside ending in an arc-wielder tip and fire electricity like they do in the movie. Ken and Yolei have been helping me with the design and construction over the past few weeks."

"Both of them together at the same time?" T.K quipped with a sly smile on his face. Kari burst out in giggles, while Tai and Matt just rolled their eyes. The quip went over the heads of the Digimon, except Gatomon, who joined in the eye-rolling, and Tentomon, who gave T.K. a critical stare.

"What? **What?**" T.K. asked defensively, realizing everyone was staring at him.

"No, **not** at the same time. Would you let me finish?" Izzy stated, hands on his hips.

"Fine." T.K. answered, crossing his arms over his chest and assuming an indignant pose. When Patamon flew in front of his face to try to cheer him up, T.K. shooed his partner back in irritation and Patamon returned to his previous position, a confused look on his face.

"As I was going to say," Izzy began again, making sure to give T.K. a critical eye as he spoke, "this has been a project Yolei, Ken and I have been working on over the last month or so. We have two such devices ready for testing, and with the crystals we got at the university I can build a ghost tracker device with one crystal, and use the other as bait."

"Bait? What do we need bait for?" Kari asked.

"Like I said, I have a plan. But I need a few more days to implement it, and I'm going to need the help of everyone here as well as Ken."

"What plan are you talking about, Izzy?" Tai asked through a confused look.

"We're going to use the electricity-generating projects to destroy, or at least drive away, the shadow next time it appears at the TV station. One of the crystals will be set as bait, along with Kari and Gatomon, while you and T.K. hunt for the shadow and try to blast it with the devices. I'll monitor the ghost using the fourth crystal in a tracker device, while Matt and Ken will operate the trap mechanism when the shadow takes the bait!" Izzy enthusiastically explained.

"Why does it have to be T.K. and me lugging those things around untested? And why does Kari have to be bait?" Tai instantly objected.

"To answer the first question, because I assigned you two those roles. To answer the second question, because Kari has a knack for attracting the weird and unusual. Any more questions? No? Good, I'll bring out one of the devices to look over!" Izzy answered, rushing off and leaving no room for further objection.

"Izzy!" Tentomon called after his partner, the exasperation in his voice obvious. He too excused himself from the room and quickly went after Izzy.

Matt slumped back in the couch and blew out a large sigh. "There he goes again, on one of his crazy schemes..." he stated in a resigned tone of voice.

* * *

Matt's remark touched off indignant remarks from the other three human DigiDestined, mostly on the order of "What does Izzy take us for, saps?". The Digimon tuned out of the ranting, figuring ignoring it was easier than joining in it; the plan Izzy had would be implemented regardless of objections because doing nothing risked a crisis similar to the Dark Ocean incidents, or even worse!

Agumon suddenly started toward a corner of the room, beckoning the other Digimon to follow. The others, curious as to what he intended to say, followed him to the corner. Gabumon asked Agumon what was going on.

"Well, there was one possibility that no one mentioned, and I thought of it, but I didn't want to say it out loud before..." Agumon began circumspectly, suddenly becoming shy.

"What are you talking about, Agumon?" Patamon asked in confusion.

"Erm, well, I thought I might seem crazy if I told anyone, but I didn't..."

"Told **what**? Out with it!" Gatomon bluntly ordered.

Gatomon's bluntness left Agumon with no choice but to confess: "Well, I thought the shadow... might have been Wizardmon."

"You can't be serious!" Gabumon exclaimed as he, Patamon and Gatomon recoiled in surprise and abhorrence at the suggestion.

"Crazy doesn't even begin to describe that suggestion, Agumon!" Gatomon attacked, launching into a full tirade. "Wizardmon would not do what that shadow did to us! Wizardmon would not attack us, ever! Why would you even **consider** such a thought as that? I'm disgusted that you even thought to bring him into this!"

"I know..." Agumon meekly replied, a hurt look in his eyes. It had been a crazy idea to mention, and he had expected the response he had gotten.

"It's **not **Wizardmon, it cannot be him! End of story!" Gatomon scolded, abruptly closing the subject as Gabumon and Patamon did not see any reason to disagree with her. After a moment of awkward silence, the four Digimon returned to the couch around which their human partners had congregated, Gatomon flashing an irritated look at a smirking Agumon.

* * *

Moments later, Izzy came back holding a metal backpack frame in his hand. Attached to the center of the frame was a metal box with a cord emerging from its bottom, the cord ending in an arc-wielding tip currently placed in a mount on the right side of the frame.

"Izzy, none of us will stand for this! This is completely ridiculous! You can't make me wear that ridiculous thing!" Tai thundered to Izzy's broadly grinning face.

"Tai's right. This plan is totally crazy." Tentomon stated deadpan as he followed Izzy back into the room.

"Would you rather roll the dice and have something horrible happen to Kari again?" Izzy countered. Tai, realizing he couldn't say no with Kari listening to him, sighed and gave in to the plan, although the displeasure on his and T.K.'s faces remained intact.

"When are we moving with the plan?" Matt asked, also resigned to the fact that he had to go along with the crazy plan.

"As soon as possible, few days at the very latest. No mention to the others without my approval beforehand." Izzy cautioned.

"Why not?"

"We don't want to cause an unnecessary panic amongst the others, Yolei and Davis in particular. They probably will learn about the attacks soon enough, we don't need to be fanning the flames further. Ken is the only other person that needs to know about this meeting, and I'll talk to him myself."

"But it would be a bad idea to leave them out of the loop! They'll be upset with us if they found out we'd deliberately left them out!"

"I understand that they would feel that way, but there's enough of us involved in the project already. Adding more would just clutter things up, and Davis and Yolei would get too emotionally involved. I'm not questioning their competence, but whether they could avoid making knee-jerk decisions that end up ruining things. I think it's just better overall to leave them out of it."

Matt didn't reply to that statement, but uncertain looks spread throughout the group. Deliberately leaving out Davis and Yolei would surely be cause of trouble later, particularly if the plan went wrong and something happened to Kari. Hopefully, things could be settled with sitting them down and explaining the reasoning, but for now that just made a dubious plan that much more uncertain.

"Izzy, this is never gonna work out..." Tai groaned through his hand-covered face.

"If you've got a better plan, please tell me." Izzy asked, his voice strained with irritation.

In response, Tai gave Izzy an incredulous look, threw his hands up in frustration, and rapidly walked out of the room, Agumon scrambling to keep up behind him. The remainder of the group, unnerved by Tai's exit, filed out slowly after him, leaving Izzy and Tentomon alone in the room.

Izzy was in deep thought, unsettled by the resistance to the plan. "Do you think it was a mistake calling this meeting?" he asked Tentomon.

"I certainly hope not! The plan can't fail, or else your name is mud!" Tentomon replied in a tone that equaled his partner's deep concern with consternation.

"Well, you're right about that, but it's going forward, whether they have enthusiasm or no enthusiasm about it. I know the plan is totally crazy, but doing nothing is not an option we have. Not without risking a more serious incident, anyways."

"Well then, I hope for everyone's sake your crazy plan actually works."

"Agreed." Izzy answered, a very grim look on his face.

**A plan is in place, but will it ever work? Is the reward worth the risks? What will the next reaction of the shadowy figure be? Find out in Part 3 - "Ghost Bustin'!"**


	3. Part 3: Ghost Bustin!

**Part 3: Ghost Bustin'!**

_Date: _Tuesday February 23rd, 2004

_Time: _About 7:30pm

_Place: _Fuji TV building, Odaiba, Japan...

"I hope this is going to be quick. I feel ridiculous wearing this in public!" T.K. complained, pointing to the metal frame "backpack" on his back. Patamon hovered beside him, studying his reflection in the metal frame with great intent.

"I couldn't agree with you more!" a fuming Tai stated, also wearing a similar metal frame "backpack". He glared at Agumon when he thought he heard chuckling coming from his partner.

"Cool it guys! We've yet to see our target." Izzy exclaimed from in front of the others, Tentomon hovering beside him. Standing in the middle of a fairly-busy office with workers staring bemusedly, Tai and T.K. were not in the mood to be talked back to, but all they could do was fume with indignation because circumstances left them no other viable response.

Izzy shook his head and pulled out a walkie-talkie. He pressed the button and said "Izzy to Matt, Izzy to Matt, come in Matt!"

Izzy let go of the button, and a moment later Matt's voice came back through the device: "I hear ya, Izzy. Haven't found it yet?"

"Afraid not. We've come to a T-intersection and we don't know which way to go." Izzy spoke back.

"If you are where I think you are, the left path leads to the main broadcast center, but that's been rerouted to secondary control while the main room is being rebuilt. The right path leads directly to secondary control." Matt explained through the walkie-talkie.

"Will we be able to reach where you set up from secondary control?"

"Yes, the studio we set up in is right off that room. Just look for the sign with '3-A' on it, that's where we have things set up."

"Roger, over and out."

* * *

"We're gonna split up?" T.K. ventured as Izzy holstered the walkie-talkie.

"It's the only way to cover both routes at the same time. Tai and Agumon, you follow me and Tentomon down the direct route to the right. T.K., you and Patamon cover the route to the left. We'll meet up in secondary control and go from there. If anyone sees the shadow, blast it for as long as you can and try to force it to the bait at the studio mentioned." Izzy confirmed.

Izzy and Tentomon proceeded forward, Izzy holding a device that looked like a meter with two dousing sticks sticking out of the top. Izzy held the device out in one direction, then the other, in both cases registering nothing on the meter, and beckoned the others forward. The others complied, having little choice in the matter.

After a quick look back, T.K. and Patamon disappeared down the left hallway, while Izzy and Tentomon started down the right hallway, Tai and Agumon reluctantly following behind them...

* * *

On the left path, T.K. took a turn and entered a zone where the atmosphere of repair and rebuilding began to mingle with the clean professionalism of a corporate headquarters. A sign slightly ahead pointed toward a construction zone where the blown-out main broadcast center was being reconstructed.

"No access beyond this point without construction permit and clearance from security office." T.K. read on the sign, which blocked the path ahead.

"T.K., which way do we go?" Patamon nervously asked, the mixed atmosphere beginning to creep him out.

T.K., also visibly unnerved by the atmosphere, looked right and noticed another door. He motioned Patamon to follow him to the door, and read the sign on it: "Construction Bypass – Employee Access Only"

"Should we be going in there?" Patamon reasonably asked.

"We have the guest passes, if anybody asks I'll just say we're trying to get rid of the ghost." T.K. affirmed, grabbing the doorknob and turning it as he spoke.

The door pushed open silently, and T.K. tiptoed into the space, Patamon now landing on his head in order to minimize chance of detection further. T.K. closed the door behind him, and quietly started down the hallway. He went down a left turn, then a right and another left.

The last left dumped T.K. and Patamon at a point where the path continued left and another door off to the right. T.K. said he would try the door first, and he uneasily opened it into a completely dark room.

T.K fumbled for a light switch and upon finding one flipped it. The light illuminated what looked like an employee lounge, judging from the table and couches as well as the kitchenette in the back of the room. The room had not seen much use since the attack, and the table had a thin layer of dust covering it and the magazines which had been strewn across it.

The blonde-haired DigiDestined unholstered the hose from the metal frame backpack he was wearing and flipped a switch on the arc tip. A beep came from the device, meaning it was ready to fire a pulse of energy when T.K. pushed the big red button on the arc tip. Pointing the device all around the room, he began to scan the furniture in the lounge.

Patamon lifted off T.K.'s head again, checking back toward the room's door in case someone (or something) came into the room. T.K. was checking the kitchenette cabinets when Patamon noticed the copier placed near the entrance of the room suddenly turn on.

"T.K.? Something's going on with that machine by the door." he nervously stated, which brought T.K. beside him.

"Weird, why would anybody want to use that copier?" T.K. said, viewing the machine with a suspicious eye as it began to spontaneously print out a sheet of paper.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Patamon asked.

"Usually yes, but there's no one around to tell it to print something." T.K. explained as he carefully walked over to the machine and took the piece of paper that had printed out. The paper had nothing on it but a gibberish mixture of English and Japanese characters, which made no sense to T.K. even as a test print page.

T.K. dropped the page of printed gibberish, and glanced back when he thought something was behind him. He scanned behind him once more, and heard Patamon yelp in surprise. Whirling around, he saw the target, the shadowy humanoid figure, emerging from the copier and slither to a point just outside the doorway!

With Patamon yelling in his ear, T.K. fumbled with his weapon, aimed it at the shadow and fired. A green arc of electricity crackled through the air, hitting the shadow and beginning to make it less distinct and lighter. The shadow immediately moved away and began traveling down the hallway at surprising speed.

"It's getting away!" Patamon exclaimed.

"Not for long. Try to keep up with me best you can!" T.K. grimly exclaimed, taking off down the hallway after the shadow. He began chasing it in the direction he had previously come from, firing the disruptor weapon whenever he got within range of the fleeing shadow...

* * *

While all this was going on, Tai, Agumon, Izzy and Tentomon had proceeded down the relatively short hallway to the secondary control room. After the group had done a quick sweep of the room, currently unoccupied due to the current time slot not requiring its use, Tai and Agumon had peaked into a few side rooms filled with equipment, with no success.

Izzy was scanning the room a second time with his ghost detector when its arms began to rise by themselves. He stopped moving, but the arms kept rising: the ghost was coming closer!

"Tai, Agumon, get over here! It's coming this way!" Izzy exclaimed.

Tai and Agumon rushed to where Izzy and Tentomon were, near the entrance door, and asked what Izzy meant.

"It's heading toward this room, maybe spotted the bait! See if you can hit it with the disruptor when it comes in!" Izzy ordered.

"Got it!" Tai stated, arc tip at the ready to fire.

About 10 seconds later, the shadow zoomed into the room. Tai got in front of it and fired, a bolt of green electricity arcing and fizzing out. The shadow quickly backed up and disappeared into a piece of equipment.

"Dang it!" Tai exclaimed. He stopped firing the device and randomly banged on the equipment near where the shadow had went it. The shadow came out, causing Izzy to shout something, and when Tai noticed it fleeing toward the door he fired the device again, accidentally blowing a control board in the process.

T.K. and Patamon stumbled into the room, asking where the shadow had gone. Izzy pointed in the direction of the studio where the trap had been set up, and he and Tentomon followed T.K. and Patamon at full speed out of the control room toward the studio. Tai and Agumon scrambled to catch up, wildly looking around for the shadow.

T.K. lead the others through the corridors behind the shadow and saw it disappear into a studio, "Studio 3-A" according to the sign on the door. The entire group rushed in at full steam into the studio, guessing the shadow had fallen for the trap...

* * *

Studio 3-A at Fuji TV was primarily devoted to talk shows, and as such no one was using it now other than the ghost-busting DigiDestined. It wasn't fully illuminated, but it was enough to work by. In the center of the room was a small crystal on a pedestal, the crystal glowing a brilliant white and connected to a wire running into the control room. Focused on the pedestal were two cameras, each connected to an arm coming from the ceiling and controlled from the control room.

When the hunter group rushed into the studio room, they found the ghost cautiously approaching the crystal in the center. Kari and Gatomon, both stationed near the pedestal, rushed for a nearby corner as the shadow approached the pedestal, Gatomon guarding the scared-stiff Kari in case the shadow turned for them.

The hunting group stopped in place. Izzy motioned Tai and T.K. to stand a distance behind the ghost and wait for the signal for the control room. He and Tentomon then crossed along the far side of the stage and turned a corner into the backstage area where Matt, Gabumon, Ken and Wormmon were waiting.

Izzy scrambled into the backstage control room and displaced Ken at the control chair, where he rapidly began typing instructions into his laptop that he had set up there.

Both Ken and Matt watched anxiously as the shadow edged closer to the pedestal and eventually surrounded the crystal. "It's taken the bait!" Ken exclaimed when he saw it surround the crystal, seeming to become well defined as a result.

Izzy snatched the microphone from the stand beside where the laptop was placed. "Matt, throw the polarity switch! Ken, send as many disruptive pulses as you can down from the laptop! I'll tell the guys out there to fire their disruptors." Izzy ordered to the others in the room.

Izzy stood up from the chair and Ken quickly took his place by the laptop. Matt threw a switch on the control board, and the monitors showed the crystal changing from a brilliant white to a blazing green. "Fire the disruptors, NOW!" Izzy fairly yelled into the microphone, and the monitors flared with green as Tai and T.K. both fired at the shadow at the same time.

* * *

Kari and Gatomon winced as Tai and T.K. grimly fired off their disruptors at the shadow, green flashing into their eyes. Kari covered her ears as the crackling and hissing of the arcing electricity filled the room, focused on the shadow on the floor near the crystal.

The shadow itself twisted and writhed in agony as it tried to get away from the crystal (which now generated disruptive energy instead of the previous constructive energy that had drawn it in) and the disruptor blasts. It made for the door, but Tai and T.K. got the beams between the shadow and door and blasted it back toward the crystal.

The monitor cameras above rotated to get a better view, and Izzy was heard through the speaker barking orders from backstage: "Matt, keep those cameras on the shadow and away from the disruptors! Ken, step up your pace with those pulses! Tai and T.K., don't let up on the blasting for even a second!"

Kari now sunk to a squatting pose against the corner wall and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to make everything go away. Gatomon however, stayed alert, watching as Tai and T.K. moved their beams in response to the shadow's movements. The shadow itself was becoming increasingly less-defined and lighter, trying without success to dodge the beams and the radiation the crystal emitted.

Gatomon now decided to try to add her own disruptive psychic pulses to the weaponry being thrown at the shadow, and she tried to psychically "lock on" to the shadow to throw disruptive pulses at it. When she got the "lock on", she was surprised to find it contained a mix of the psychic "signatures" of five Digimon. She recognized four of the parts: pieces of Agumon's, Gabumon's, Patamon's and her own psychic signature. But there was also a fifth part, highly distorted and scrambled, but recognizable as a Digimon...

Her heart skipped a few beats when she recognized the distorted fifth part. Everything had to stop. **NOW.

* * *

**

Gatomon immediately reaimed her disruptive pulse toward the disruptor weapons Tai and T.K. were using and "fired" it with a pulse of her tail ring. No one saw her do this because everyone else was transfixed on the degrading shadow. The disruptive electricity immediately stopped, taking Tai and T.K. by surprise.

"What's going on in there? Why'd you guys stop firing?" Izzy yelled through the speaker, the cameras focused on the pair hurriedly trying to get their disruptors firing again while their Digimon partners just watched the shadow in concern. The shadow backed to a distance away from the crystal but did not try to flee, apparently too weak to try.

Matt watched Tai and T.K.'s frustrations and finally concluded that the disruptors were being jammed somehow. "How is that possible? There's nothing...!" Izzy began a response, before being cut off by Ken yelling his name.

Izzy turned to the monitor screen to see the crystal turning back from green to white. He looked down at Ken, who fruitlessly pounded away at the laptop keyboard and yelled "It's no use! Nothing's responding, there's an override in place!"

Izzy was near panic, not being able to understand what was overriding the system other than the ghost itself. Out in the studio, Gatomon breathed a silent sigh of relief; with the crystal changed back to constructive energy, the shadow was safe from destruction for now. Just like before, it began to surround the crystal and become more defined as it drew in the crystal's energy.

The trap and destroy attempt dissolved into chaos. The shadow, now a fairly well defined if still vaguely shaped figure, began traveling up the monitor line toward Izzy's laptop. Through the speakers was heard panicked phrases from Izzy and Ken as the laptop stopped responding.

In the control room, the shadow entered the laptop, causing the computer to bluescreen and begin to give off high-pitched noises. This drove out everyone in the room, the humans and Gabumon trying to block out the noise best they could. At the same time, Tai pulled Kari away from the corner (not bothering to look at what Gatomon was doing) and went with T.K., Patamon and Agumon toward the control room in some attempt to help the situation.

Gatomon saw the two groups run right into each other, collapsing in a confused heap of bodies, and saw her chance. She scrambled across the stage, over the confused heap and into the backstage area, where the monitors were pulsing rainbow colors and high-pitched sounds were still being emitted from the laptop.

* * *

It took a minute to get everyone untangled from the collision and check over for injuries. The shadow was nowhere in sight, but neither was Gatomon. The entire group rushed into the backstage area, only face the same loud noise as before. There was Gatomon though, eyes and tailring glowing, seeming to "tune" the noise as if it were a bad radio or TV signal.

Before anyone could ask (other than mentally) what the heck Gatomon was doing, the noise stopped, as did the flashing colors on the camera monitors. The laptop monitor turned from a bluescreen to a blank screen, and a figure appeared on it.

The entire group crowded around the laptop screen, Izzy and Ken closest to it. The highly pixelated figure itself seemed to be a Kimeramon-like composite of several Digimon, a mixture of parts from Agumon, Gabumon, Patamon and Gatomon. The figure suddenly turned very angry and loud noises began coming from the laptop again, but stopped after a few seconds, apparently after the figure itself realized that the noise was not understandable.

The Digidestined watched as the figure seemed to pound the bottom of the screen in frustration, then sigh in sadness. Words began to print on the screen above the figure: "It's no use. No wonder you attacked, you couldn't understand me. The degradation was worse than I thought..."

Izzy pushed aside Ken and began typing at the keyboard. He typed: "Who are you? And what are you talking about?", the question appearing a line below the previously generated words.

"SHE knows. SHE saw what I was at the moment I most needed to be recognized. SHE will tell you. I want to talk to HER." was the response that printed out.

It was obvious now the figure was a Digimon, somehow, talking to them through Izzy's laptop. But the references to "SHE" and "HER" were very puzzling, and the DigiDestined looked at each other in confusion.

This lasted until Gatomon squeezed her way through the crowd until she was beside Izzy at the laptop. She stared at the figure curiously, and more words printed out: "Good. SHE is here. They do not know who I am, tell them who I am."

Gatomon pushed a surprised Izzy aside, and slowly typed out a word that would pierce each and every witness through the heart: "**Wizardmon."

* * *

**

The figure smiled as the collective attitude of the entire group sunk to dreadful shame at the thought of nearly having destroyed one of their most profound benefactors. More words printed out on the screen: "You see, she recognized even the degraded and confused parts of what's left of my data pattern."

"Data pattern?" Izzy typed in response, having been allowed back at the keyboard.

"The organization of data that gives a Digimon their properties. The ghost was a manifestation of my pattern, which was still there because I could not be reborn." the figure responded through the printing words.

"Why was your pattern degrading?" Izzy typed again, striking up a conversation as a result.

"I've been exposed to highly disruptive signals since the day I lost my physical form to save Gatomon and Kari. The data pattern survived because there is no place to be reborn in this dimension, as did the patterns of the other Digimon that died in this world. All those patterns were absorbed by Myotismon, and I only escaped that fate by fleeing high into this world's atmosphere where he could not find me. I saw Myotismon defeated a second time because I noticed his pattern floating about below, then occupy a human body."

"That human was Oikawa. You saw it, you tried to warn us about him."

"Yes, but it didn't work. I only had one try, on the anniversary. The rest of the time, I had to stay far away to avoid detection by Myotismon's spirit. And it seemed that you could not make the connection at the time. Or you were too emotionally involved in my appearance. It seems from what you've recorded on what happened on this laptop a lot of trouble might have been avoided if this had not been the case."

"Why didn't you try multiple times?"

"Because it exposed me to potential detection and retribution by Myotismon's spirit as well as much pattern degradation from all the wireless signals being sent and received from here. It was not worth more than one try."

"Why didn't you manifest after Myotismon's defeat then? Why did you wait so long?"

"I didn't dare to even try such a manifestation. The degradation had become so great that trying may have lead to total pattern loss. I would've been gone even as a ghost. Out of desperation, I came to your residences based on the signals from your partners and copied parts of their patterns to replace what had degraded away. You thought they were attacks because you couldn't see my degraded pattern as Wizardmon and I couldn't tell you who I was. Your well-intentioned scheme nearly destroyed this composite pattern you see now."

"So now you're not Wizardmon?" Izzy asked.

"I don't know anymore, but at least I'm still alive. I'm stuck as a prisoner on this laptop though, the pattern is so badly degraded that if I leave, it will completely disintegrate. And if this laptop loses power, it will not be able to save the pattern."

"What can we do to make it up to you?"

"Get me back to the Digital World. Maybe this confused pattern can still return to Primary Village to be reborn as something physical. But it's all up to you." the words printed out, the figure taking on a scared expression.

"All up to us?" Izzy typed in with alarm. The alarm was also on the face of every other DigiDestined watching the conversation.

"Yes, my fate is still in your hands. If you succeed, you may yet see me again in a form that can be touched and embraced. But if you fail, or I cannot be reborn, I will leave a file telling you everything from my perspective, my side of the story. Spread this file far and wide, let me not be forgotten. I will be waiting here for you..." the figure typed out, it's last words it would type. A video file icon appeared in the upper-left corner of the screen, and the figure appeared to lay down and go to sleep.

* * *

Instantly all the DigiDestined huddled in the crowded conditions of the backstage area, looking for options on what to do next. The now-useless disruptors and ghost detector were taken off and tossed aside, left for whatever Fuji TV would make of them. Izzy stated out front that he had no idea how long his laptop battery would last, so that they needed to plan out the route ahead of time before making a mad dash to a Digital World portal.

T.K. suggested the school computer lab they used to use as their main entry point, but Matt said it may be too far away and had no guarantee of success of entry. Tai suggested one of the Fuji TV computers, but that idea was nixed for being too much of a liability (they would be seen using it to enter). Ken suggested a home computer of the DigiDestined, presumably his own, but again it was knocked down for being too far away and with no guarantee of success.

"What do we do then? We just can't do nothing!" Kari exclaimed after those suggestions had been exhausted.

"Dad is covering our presence here, by saying he was going to interview us for the nightly news or somethin'. We need to find him in order to find a computer terminal outside the usual work areas. We need to be quick though." Matt suggested.

"Even if we do find somethin' though, how do we know it will work?" Tai objected.

"Hey, it's better than doing nothing at all!"

"All right, all right, chill! I'm just sayin'..."

"There's no guarantee of success here at all guys. None." Ken stated, looking grimly over at Kari and a barely-composed Gatomon.

"Matt's plan at least has the advantage of staying in the building. Tentomon and I will stay here with Kari and Gatomon, everyone else spread out and try to find Mr. Ishida. Hurry!" Izzy stated. All of the other Digidestined acknowledged this and exited the backstage area.

"I don't want this to end badly." a visibly scared Kari said to Izzy, she clinging to Gatomon as much for support as it was to keep the feline Digimon from a breakdown.

"Neither do I, Kari, neither do I." Izzy replied with grim frankness, his voice showing an unusual hesitation which made the words all the more grim.

A moment later, Izzy looked over at the disruptors and detector that had been hastily (and with much guilt) tossed aside. Even though he had made those things, he hated them now. He felt the others with him watching from behind as he picked up the detector. Even though they couldn't see it, he looked over the device with a mixture of disgust and dismay, and finally hurled it against the nearby wall.

The detector hit the wall with a hard "thunk", then clattered to the ground. A panel on the back popped open, and a rectangular green crystal tumbled out of the device. Izzy picked up this crystal and looked it over, thinking of a chance for absolution while Kari and Gatomon grimly watched the sleeping figure on Izzy's laptop monitor...

* * *

Time: 8:30pm...

After an impatiently long wait, Izzy finally got a message via walkie-talkie: Ken had found Matt and T.K.'s dad, but he was clueless to help in the situation. All that had been said was that there were some network control terminals down in the building's basement that received very little use but were constantly on to monitor the building's internal network for problems. The area was supposed to be under security access only, but the security system was put offline during the Ankokuwa attack and it would be months before a replacement could be installed.

"There are supposed to be some guards patrolling around down there instead, but he didn't know how many or what they were armed with. With any luck, we can avoid them. If not, we're gonna have to blow past 'em somehow." Ken finished his transmission.

"How long do you think this will all take?" Izzy asked through the walkie-talkie.

"Half an hour, 20 minutes if we're lucky. Do you have a plan back there?"

"Yeah, I got one. Find as many of the others as you can and tell them to head where Matt's dad told you to go. If any of you get there before we do, try to find a computer and open a DigiPort on it. If it doesn't work, tell us as soon as you find out and double back to this room for Plan B."

"Roger. Over and out."

Izzy holstered the walkie-talkie and looked at the still-sleeping figure on the laptop screen. The situation was stable with the laptop drawing power from the wall sockets, but he had no idea what would happen with even a fully charged battery running this "life support system". Naturally, he always kept his laptop battery well charged, but that was no guarantee of success.

"Are we going now?" Kari asked from behind Izzy.

"Yes, here's what we're going to do." Izzy began to explain. "We're going to get down to a network monitoring area in the building's basement. With any luck, we'll be able to open a DigiPort and save our friend trapped on my laptop. I ordered Ken to find everyone else and get them to head down there. We'll need to take the stairs so that we're not constantly running into people, and we need to move FAST because I have no idea how long the battery will last once I disconnect power from the wall socket."

"We need to get to the computer before your battery runs out?" Kari ventured.

"Correct. Or find another wall socket and wait a few hours for it to charge the battery again, but we don't have that kind of time. We only have one shot at getting this right."

"What about the others?"

"We don't have the time to wait for them to come back here. With luck they'll get there ahead of us and open a DigiPort to go through. If not, you'll have to use your own D-3 to open it for us."

"Understood."

"Ken said the whole thing will take us a half-hour, so we should plan for that. It's going to be running all the way, no stopping. Hopefully the battery will last that long... Gatomon, I suggest you ride on Kari's shoulders so that you don't trip either Kari or myself by accident. Tentomon, stay to the back so that you don't get in the way."

The Digimon acknowledged the commands. Gatomon carefully climbed up Kari's back onto her shoulders while Izzy asked if anyone knew the quickest way to the emergency stairs.

"Yes, I saw an access door down the hallway leading to the room. It's to the left and straight down from the studio entrance."

"Very good, Tentomon. Head for the studio door and open it for us." Izzy stated.

"What about the gear?" Kari asked, Gatomon now on her shoulders.

"Leave it, we can come back for it later. We're going NOW."

As Izzy spoke, he yanked the laptop's power cord from the socket, then pulled the connector on the laptop itself off. A large battery icon with a percent number above it appeared on the screen beside the sleeping figure. It was "100.0%" at first, but slowly began to tick down to "99.9%", "99.8%", "99.7%"...

Izzy scooped up the laptop, balanced it against his chest, and took off like a bullet, Kari fast on his heels. The two sped out the backstage area, across the studio, out the opened door, down the hallway (now joined by Tentomon staying behind) and into the stairwell. Down the stairs the DigiDestined flew, trying to beat the clock for the undoing of their mistake...

* * *

Thus began what was later informally called "The Great and Desperate Race". Though they were moving down the stairs at top speed, Izzy noticed the battery life dropping at a steady but fast rate, a few percent every minute. This gave very little margin for error; if the plan didn't work, they were sunk because there was not enough time to implement a Plan B.

About halfway down to the objective (and about 65% left on the battery), the building's PA system suddenly came on, telling all visitors under the age of 18 "and their companions" to report to the basement security area. Because the voice was of Matt's dad, both Izzy and Kari realized that he had, on his own initiative and probably risk, alerted all the other DigiDestined in the building down to the objective point. This lifted their flagging energies and pushed them further on.

Approaching ground level, Izzy and Kari saw other DigiDestined entering the stairway area and fanning out to locate the underground access point. Izzy and Kari arrived at the ground level stairs, but were hung up waiting for the others to figure out which way to go next. Finally, Ken found the right door, and he and Wormmon joined Kari and Izzy in the "race" with about 35% left on the battery.

Whooshing through underground corridors, they ran into several dead-ends in their haste before finding the right way, which had a pair of inactivated security doors with human guards supposedly standing in the way. Nearing each of those doors in turn, a small explosion was heard from somewhere nearby in the underground tunnels, apparently caused by the other DigiDestined to draw away the guard and allow passage unhindered.

Speeding through the second door, the battery was now down to 10% and falling fast. The rate of power drain had sped up when the figure woke up and began flailing around in panic, and Izzy could see the numbers precipitously ticking down as they continued through the corridor. Finally, Izzy, Kari and Ken, along with their Digimon partners, spilled out into a small, dimly-lit room, choked with dust and gungy smells.

"Get a Digiport open!" Izzy yelled. Kari and Ken split up to try the computers lined up in the room using their respective D-3s, while Izzy noted the battery tick down past 9%. The screen blinked once, the battery gauge display disappeared (leaving just the battery percent number) and the panicked figure began to lose color and become monochrome. Panicked help text began printing on the screen, speeding the battery drain.

Kari and Ken tried one, two, three computers each, with no success. Izzy tried to type to the alarmed figure to calm down to reduce the battery drain, which only made the problem worse. Angry male voices were heard in the corridor leading into the room, causing the entire group to duck under a covered table.

In the hot, dusty conditions under the table, Izzy reported the battery was 8% and still dropping fast. Ken peaked from under the table cover, seeing the two irritated guards storm into the room. They circled the room, passing the hiding place without noticing their presence.

"You think you can get a stealth shot on 'em, Wormmon?" Ken turned back to ask. Wormmon replied with a shrug.

"Down to 6%!" Izzy mentioned, pointing to the now-grayscale figure on the monitor. It had collapsed onto all fours and seemed to be trying to will itself to survive.

"Wormmon, you gotta try!" Ken all but pleaded.

"But I don't know if I can hit them from here." Wormmon replied with a shameful blush.

"Then put a sticky trap! Do what you can without being seen!"

"5%, we're losing him!" Izzy stated again, pointing out that the figure was beginning to "derezz" – go blurry and have pieces scatter off the main figure.

* * *

With panic in their throats and hope fading fast, the DigiDestined hiding under a dusty table may have given up trying altogether. But they trusted their allies and friends to still come through for them. And they did.

A muffled explosion (probably a fire extinguisher exploding) was heard from the hallway. The guards sped out of the room. The group peaked out from under the table, heard the guards yelling as they ran from "monsters" in a panic, then a sound of running feet with Tai's voice ordering everyone down the hallway.

The group already in the room emerged fully from under the table, and the other group of DigiDestined lead by Tai and Agumon spilled into the room. "GET THAT PORT OPEN NOW!" Tai commanded in his most authoritative voice, and T.K. immediately began trying his D-3 on the rows of computers.

"3%! Hurry, the figure is going fast!" Izzy yelled, as T.K., Kari and Ken each tried a computer in turn. One try, two, three... nothing. None of the computers seemed to be able to open a Digiport to get Izzy through. Tai and Matt looked back out the hallway, checking to see if the guards were coming back.

"2 percent! It's almost gone!" Izzy now yelled, seeing the disintegrating figure gripped in total agony. Just like the war game with Diaboromon, he felt totally helpless to prevent a total disaster. Yells (mostly from Gatomon and T.K.) echoed in his ears as the number continued its downward tick to zero.

The three DigiDestined with D-3s kept trying the computer terminals, moving down the rows methodically. Finally, almost miraculously, one of the computers T.K. was trying flared white as the Digiport opened. T.K. rapidly moved out of the way and Izzy almost dived into the port with his laptop in front of him. It closed behind him, and the other DigiDestined crowded around the computer to see what had happened.

On the monitor, they saw Izzy get up from his swan dive as a colorful stream of data bits emerged from the laptop, heading for an unclear destination presumed to be Primary Village. Izzy picked up the laptop after the stream stopped, took one look at the monitor, and flashed a gleeful victory sign. "Point three percent away from death! That's how close it came." he was heard to say through the computer speakers.

The DigiDestined breathed a collective sigh of relief. They weren't out of the woods when it came to the figure that Wizardmon had taken on, but at least he hadn't been totally lost. But now, the questions of explaining things and hoping they hadn't been too late cropped up in their minds. They would have hell to pay when Davis and Yolei found out what they had nearly done...

**Disaster has been averted... at least it seems. Is it really? Find out in Part 4, "Restoration!"**


	4. Part 4: Restoration

**Part 4: Restoration**

_Date: _Friday February 24, 2004

_Time: _8:30pm

_Place: _Kamiya apartment building...

The atmosphere in the Kamiya apartment tense, with Mrs. Kamiya's half-hearted efforts to play hostess not doing much to ease the situation. The congregated DigiDestined had split into two groups, one in Kari's room trying to avoid the tension the other group was generating in the main living area.

Izzy had hastily called a meeting of the DigiDestined after the events of the previous night, ostensibly to convene the council about the "Fuji TV incident" but in reality it was given as damage control; not to call a meeting would've driven a wedge between those that had been involved and those that had not been involved, possibly jeopardizing the unity undergirding the entire group.

As had been expected, the faux-meeting quickly broke down. Davis and Yolei erupted in fury at Izzy, angry at having been deliberately left out of the "totally crazy" plan, protesting their connections to Kari being deliberately ignored, and accusing that "a conspiracy to marginalize" existed amongst Tai, Matt and Izzy. Tai and Matt entered the fray, trying to explain they had had no choice in the matter, and the argument turned into a three-sided yelling match when they accused Izzy of drafting them into a plan that was ridiculous from the outset.

The reaction from these develops was various. T.K. joined the side of Tai and Matt in order to combat "co-conspirator" claims and try to play down Davis's claim in protecting Kari. Kari herself retreated to her room to wait out the arguing. Sora walked out, totally disgusted with the behavior she was seeing. Joe tried to play peacemaker but failed to stop the ranting, and quickly joined Kari. Cody followed Joe, realizing that he had no power to interfere with this dispute. Ken tried to get Izzy and Davis to back down from their respective positions, but was pushed out of the argument and subsequently joined Kari in the room as well.

The Kamiya mother could do little to interfere with the testosterone-laced shouting match, and watched with grave concern as the yelling match went on, the Digimon too disoriented to add anything or try to stop the arguing. With the four more vulnerable group members hiding in Kari's room and the other six locked in a simmering argument, the near future did not bode well for team unity. The debate beginning to take on more ridiculous aspects (such as accusations involving Tai's hairstyle, how much time Izzy was spending in front of a computer, and how close Yolei really was to Kari), it degenerated into petty bickering those not involved in could only hope to wait out, discouraging them all...

* * *

When it seemed the bickering finally began to simmer down to a lingering resentment, both groups heard electrical arcing sounds coming from the spare office room Mr. Kamiya sometimes used for his work. The arguing group quickly dropped their arguments and clustered near the door to that room, which had bright white light emitting through the cracks underneath and at the sides. Mrs. Kamiya opened the door into blinding white light coming from the computer in the room, prompting a reaction from those in Kari's room to open the door to that room and then backing away from the light beams pouring from the office room.

When the light and electrical arcing sounds finally faded, Mrs. Kamiya let out a surprised yelp and retreated through the huddled crowd back into the living room, only daring to peak around the corner at the scene. The two groups of DigiDestined rushed into the office room, friction points and concerns temporarily forgotten, and encountered two figures standing in the room. The figures were so surprising that the group backed away, causing a few members to spill back out of the crowded room.

The first figure was immediately recognizable: Gennai, grinning broadly and holding some kind of device in his hands; the device had a small rectangular hole in the center and two larger but oddly shaped holes on the sides. The second figure was a Digimon, but like no Digimon the DigiDestined had ever seen before.

It was about the same size as Gabumon, and looked vaguely like a weaker form of the experimental Kimeramon. It's body, feet and tail looked the same as Gabumon's, except the tail had a larger version of Gatomon's tail-ring (essentially bracelet or anklet-sized) attached at a point just before the tail began to taper to a tip. Gabumon's fur was also present, but as something of a cloak attached around the neck with a broach shaped similar to the "starburst" Crest of Light symbol. The arms were similar to Gabumon's as well, but ended in a proportionally larger version of Gatomon's paws (complete with the gloves that normally covered them). Sticking out from the cloak at the shoulders were larger versions of Patamon's "ear-wings", allowing the Digimon to fly. The head was a curious mixture of traits from Agumon, Gabumon and Patamon. The head was a slightly larger version of Agumon's, only with Gabumon's horn sticking out of the forehead and having Gatomon's long, pointed ears. Finally, there was a "mop" of light brown hair covering the top of the Agumon head, falling past the horn and around the ears.

Seeing this composite Digimon, Tai, Matt, T.K. and Kari stumbled to the head of the crowd, Digimon partners in front of them regarding the odd mixed Digimon with equal parts curiosity and caution. The chimeric figure gently smiled, causing the mood to change to suspicion in place of the caution. Gennai smiled too, and gestured the group forward.

The DigiDestined looked at each other, not quite sure what to make of the whole thing. Tai, Matt, T.K. and Kari advanced forward a step, but were stopped when the chimeric figure made a stopping gesture with his right paw. It then pointed at Gatomon, causing everyone else to focus on her.

Feeling everyone else staring at her, Gatomon pointed to herself to make sure that the gesture had been interpreted correctly. The figure nodded, then gestured her forward. Gatomon looked back at the other DigiDestined uncertainly, then made a few steps in the figure's direction.

As Gatomon approached, the chimera Digimon extended a paw in either greeting or embrace, but she shrunk back from it and that Digimon pulled the gesture back. Gatomon gave the figure a serious lookover, finding little physical difference between the figure and the Digimon forms it was composed from, and her eyes softened in surprise and confusion.

"Who... who are you?" she quietly asked.

"Do you not yet see, or are you still thinking about those good old days?" the figure replied with a broad smile.

* * *

It only took a moment for Gatomon to recognize the voice, but when it did it unleashed a flood of emotions. It was definitely Wizardmon's, albeit slightly gruffer and deeper, but close enough to bring the bittersweet memories to the surface.

Eyebrows went up all throughout the group of DigiDestined, a few trading shocked expressions. Gatomon lost control of her emotions completely and rushed to embrace the chimeric figure, crying into the figure's chest. The chimeric figure gave her a reassuring pat on her back as she squeezed him as tightly as she could. Gatomon mentioned repeatedly how much she worried she would never see him again, and the chimeric Digimon reassuring that all would soon be put to right.

Kari knelt down in front of the chimeric reincarnation of Wizardmon and asked why he looked so different, why he wasn't reborn the normal way. Gennai answered to her and the rest of the group that the original data pattern had degraded too much to return him to his original form, so with some help from the Harmonious Ones the composite data pattern was tweaked to form a viable new Digimon form, similar to Kimeramon in composition.

Izzy, who had snuck back to retrieve his laptop from the living room to analyze the new Digimon, now spoke up from the back of the crowd, reading off the text displayed on his laptop with some surprise in his voice: "The analyzer has given an identification as 'Patchmon'. Champion level, composite of the looks and abilities of Agumon, Gabumon, Patamon and Gatomon. Attacks are Firewall, where he fires an expanding wave of fire from his mouth, and Ice Claw, where he attacks with ice-hardened paws."

"There's very little of the original Wizardmon pattern left, as you can see. But as you may have guessed, the composite pattern resulted in a Digimon that is greater than the sum of its parts." Gennai pragmatically admitted. Patchmon blushed; it was clear that the old friend was still not quite used to being "clothed" in a new composite body, and it was guessed that once at Primary Village the resulting Baby from that pattern had been hastily Digivolved to allow for this joyful return.

"Fear not friends, Gennai will put all to right. What was taken away shall now be returned, so that you may keep the threats away from the Digital World." Patchmon now stated.

"What does that mean, Patchmon?" T.K. asked.

* * *

Gennai held up a finger to indicate for the others to hold on a minute. The others turned to watch as he gave the machine he was holding to Patchmon, then reached into his coat and pulled out a large velvet-covered box. The box was very flat, much wider and longer than it was tall, almost one of those boxes a jewelry necklace came in. At the front of the maroon-velvet box was a small gold clasp, Gennai carefully undid this clasp and opened the "jewelry box" to reveal...

"The Crests!" Tai exclaimed, his heart jumping into his throat from excitement. The already positively charged atmosphere became absolutely electric, all thoughts of insult and insinuation forgotten in the midst of common hopes coming true in front of them.

The box did indeed contain the eight reconstituted Crests, though without their Tag counterparts. Each Crest was resting in a slot in the "jewelry box", arranged in random order around a central white crystal similar to the ones the DigiDestined had previously encountered.

Before he could get mobbed by excited DigiDestined wanting their Crests back, he handed the box to Patchmon and took the machine in exchange. Gennai explained the machine worked on the power of a fruit from a Tree of Light to integrate the Crest directly into the Digivice or D-3, making it permanently accessible without need of a Tag and restoring the ability to Digivolve to Ultimate and beyond "for as good as I can make it".

He also explained that because of the special conditions required for Omnimon, Tai and Matt needed to be done first, and both at the same time. The two aforementioned, plus Agumon and Gabumon, immediately forced their way to the head of the line, Kari and T.K. hanging back just behind them to make their "next in line" position clear.

Gennai told Tai to insert his Digivice in the odd shaped hole to the left, which he did. Then Gennai carefully took out the Courage Crest, inserted it into the central slot, and flicked the switch on the machine to the left. The device began to vibrate, and after a moment the Crest glowed, turned into a stream of energy and entered the machine. Tai's Digivice buzzed in the machine, flashed an orange color, then beeped as the Courage symbol came up on the screen.

"Success! The Crest is now permanently integrated with the Digivice, meaning you don't need anything other than the Digivice itself to use the Crests now." Gennai gleefully explained.

This set off an excited buzz amongst the other DigiDestined, particularly the Digimon who were now getting the long-hoped for chance to get their higher forms back. The line stayed intact though, despite the excitement, knowing an excited scramble would risk losing the change.

Matt compliantly stepped up to the device, and put his Digivice in the right slot. Gennai repeated the procedure he had just done with the Crest of Friendship, this time throwing the switch to the right. When the Friendship symbol appeared on Matt's Digivice, Gennai returned the switch to the neutral position.

"This is the most risky part. I'm going to try a double transfer to get the energy for Omnimon using the extra crystal." Gennai stated, putting the central crystal into the same slot where the Crests had been placed. He blew out a sigh, and quickly flipped the switch back and forth for a couple seconds. The crystal began to put out two separate energy streams, one to Tai's Digivice and one to Matt's, and the device began to vibrate both louder and more aggressively. This vibration built to disconcerting levels, and Gennai temporarily took the device from the shaken-up Patchmon to see how to tame the vibrations.

"It wasn't tested for this kind of energy flow. I'll need to reduce the output rate before this thing shakes itself apart." Gennai explained as he turned a knob on the bottom of the device. Much to the crowd's relief, the device quieted down and the transfer finished, the two Digivices both flashing an "omega" symbol to indicate the successful transfer.

Tai and Matt were allowed to remove their Digivices from the device, and both T.K. and Kari eagerly stepped forward for their turns. Gennai stopped them though, saying that the last transfer had drained the device's energy and he needed to put in a new power source. Gennai pulled back his cloak and took out another light fruit he had brought with him, looking vaguely like a shady watch dealer or a cloak-and-dagger secret agent.

"How many of those you got in there?" T.K. exclaimed in surprise, wondering if bringing in all that extra energy had caused all the theatrics when Gennai had come in with Patchmon.

"Oh, just two or three. I was told to take as many I thought would be needed." Gennai replied with a coy smile, inserting the fruit he had previously taken out into a panel on the bottom of the machine. A couple crowd members chuckled at this, though Izzy wondered if the transfer back would damage the computer even more than the one coming in...

* * *

While all this was going on, Mrs. Kamiya peered cautiously from the hallway corner. She couldn't see much of what was going on, but could hear the excited buzz coming from the room, and finally concluded she didn't need to worry about things anymore. At the time T.K. and Kari stepped up to do their Crests, she gave a relieved smile and slowly walked away to the kitchen, convinced that Tai and Kari could explain things later if she asked.

Kari and then T.K. got their Crests integrated in turn; they had to insert their D-3s in a different way than the old-style Digivices into the odd-shaped holes, but otherwise the procedure (minus the bit with the crystal) was the same as it was with Tai and Matt. They removed their D-3s, and Izzy and Joe stepped up to the device. One more pair of integrations and the job was done.

Gennai smirked at the two Crests remaining in the padded box. One was Sincerity, which Gennai already knew he'd have to make a separate visit to get that one integrated with Mimi, but the other was Love, Sora's Crest. He asked where Sora was.

"She came here, but left before you showed up." Tai explained, deftly sidestepping the "why" of her leaving.

Gennai gave a suspicious glance, quickly followed by an irritated one. "I'll have to make another trip for her then. I can't be seen moving around in this world." Gennai stated with some frustrated resignation.

He and Patchmon turned to face the computer monitor and go back to the Digital World, but Gatomon ran up to Patchmon's side and grabbed on. "You're leaving again, so soon?" she asked, her eyes softening into a plea.

"I have to, just for a little while. I'm still getting used to this new form." Patchmon replied with disappointment, flaring out the wings for a moment to help show what he meant.

"You're gonna come back, right?"

Patchmon smiled and said "Of course, Gatomon. I've been told I'm going to be someone's Digimon partner soon. Azulongmon said I had earned the privilege of being a fellow DigiDestined."

"Oh I hope so." Gatomon said, turning her clinging into a full hug. She slowly, reluctantly, let go and stepped back, waving good-bye. Patchmon returned the wave, and a moment later both he and Gennai disappeared into the computer with another burst of light and crackling electricity, albeit much less intense than the entrance.

The resulting final mood was profoundly bittersweet, though far more sweet than bitter. One of their oldest and most important friends had returned, and the Crests were now usable again. Each and every one of the Digimon were eager to see what that would bring, and whether it would finally lead to the peace so long hoped for...

**What next for our DigiDestined now with the Crests restored? Find out in Part 5, "Joyride!"**


	5. Part 5: Joyride

**Part 5: Joyride**

_Date: Sunday February 26th, 2004_

_Time: 10:30 am_

_Place: Somewhere in downtown Tokyo..._

Giman Uirusu laughed manically in the commandeered city bus screaming down the Tokyo streets. To his left was his second-in-command Kobu holding a gun to a bus driver's head, the hostage driver flooring the gas and trying to hold the bus straight as it raced down the street. To his right was an armed guard sticking the barrel of the machine gun out an improvised forward turret.

About 30 minutes previous to this, Giman had rolled out the turbocharged city bus (captured two weeks previously by a mole in the city transportation authority and retrofitted at the Ankokuwa headquarters), complete with bus driver hostage, machine gun "turrets" sticking out of each of the four sides of the bus, and a roof-mounted "laser turret" placed over the center emergency exit hatch. Well stocked with ammunition and each "turret" manned, Giman ordered the bus out on the city streets, spreading havoc on an apparent joyride.

The news reader on the TV explain it best as screens lit up with chopper footage of the speeding bus pursued by police cars: "City Bus Sakura-42, which mysteriously disappeared from its storage garage two weeks ago in what is suspected to be an inside job, is now speeding down city streets, heavily armed and dangerous. Police have tried in vain to stop the bus, believed to be commanded by criminal mastermind Giman Uirusu, but spike strip placement has failed and several police cars have been wrecked by an apparent laser weapon mounted on the top of the bus. All authorities can do at this point is keep civilians out of the way of this joyriding bus..."

The DDLA, assembled in their own little council after the events of the previous night, saw the events happening on TV, and realized they had a chance of both showing off the restored Crest powers and capturing Giman at the same time. They immediately set out, perhaps hoping that the other DigiDestined would come to their aid when they could...

* * *

_10 minutes later..._

On the joyriding bus, the top-mounted laser gun, facing toward the chasing police cars, whirred into place, sights locked on a car in the middle of the lane which had begun to edge out from the row of other cars. Once sighted, the gunner pulled a trigger, and a destructive beam of green laser light shot out from the cannon's barrel. An eyeblink later, the targeted car's engine exploded in a fireball, causing it to spin out and crash into the side of the road, nearly taking out some of the other police cars as well.

The front gunner glimpsed at a side view mirror to see the flaming police car smashed into a building. "They got another one, sir!" he yelled.

"Excellent! Soon they will see the futility of continuing to chase us. We will have a clear license for havoc!" Giman stated, a gleefully-evil smile crossing his face.

"New bogeys! Coming in fast, six o' clock!" the rear gunner suddenly shouted.

"What? More police cars? Why are they wasting their time trying to catch me?" Giman asked, somewhat rhetorically.

"No sir, they're flying sir." the rear gunner responded, his confidence dropping off noticeably.

"Flying? Let me see!" Giman shouted, slowly working his way toward the back of the bus. The rear gunner obligingly moved out of the way when Giman arrived, and Giman peered out the back window the turret was mounted by to see what exactly had come up.

As it turned out, it was two "monsters", Stingmon and Kabuterimon to be exact, rapidly closing on the bus and intending to dive-bomb an attack. The pursuing police cars dropped back slightly, perhaps not wanting to get caught in any crossfire that might result from the confrontation. Giman ordered an attack, but as he turned to return to the front of the bus, he saw a large sphere of electricity (Kabuterimon's **Electroshocker** attack) heading for the bus.

The sphere missed the bus by mere feet, exploding just outside the left rear windows. The bus driver panicked at this sight and slammed the bus brakes. The four gunners inside the bus, Giman and Kobu all fell forward on their faces, Kobu dropping the gun he had been holding and suffering a nasty bump to his head. Spare ammunition spilled out of boxes and rolled along the bus floor, making it dangerous to walk on. The top-mounted gunner was slammed back into his seat as he saw the bus begin to make a slow spin on the road. As the bus driver frantically pumped the brakes, the entire bus began to turn on it's side, nearly flipping over, then backwards, tires squealing loudly and thick skid marks being left on the road behind it, finally stopping in an obliquely angled backwards position pointing toward the side of the road. Smoke began curling skyward from the worn-down tires.

Kabuterimon and Stingmon landed further down from the bus, off-loading their human partners plus the other DDLA members, while three police cars stopped near the bus, each letting out an officer that pointed a gun at the bus.

* * *

Giman got up with a moan, shaken and slightly disoriented. He yelled for a status report.

"We're all right, just a little shaken up. The bus has turned almost completely around, stopped near the edge of the road. Some of the spare bullets spilled out all over the floor, so watch where you're stepping!" the left-side gunner reported.

"Three police officers on foot, armed and approaching slowly!" the right-side gunner alerted.

"Monsters on the other side from police, blocking the road. They're just standing in the roadway as big roadblocks!" the rear gunner stated.

"Driver bailed and took the keys with him! Kobu took a bad bump to the head, he's not responding!" the front gunner added, holding up the unconscious Kobu. The Ankokuwa second-in-command had a nasty gash along his forehead from where it had hit the bus dashboard during the sudden braking.

Giman carefully worked his way toward the front of the bus, watching that he didn't step on any stray bullets, well aware of the crisis situation that now existed. The rear gunner followed him up, watching as Giman attempted to get Kobu to respond.

"The police are still closing!" the right-side gunner shouted.

"Drive them back, I need some time to make a plan!" Giman ordered. Obediently, the gunner began pumping out machine gun rounds, driving the police officers back to their cars but not before getting a few return fire rounds.

Giman looked back at his second-in-command, then snapped out a series of orders. "Kobu needs a hospital. Front and back gunners, take him out using the driver's door and get him to the nearest hospital using whatever means you can. Right-side gunner, keep the police back! Left-side gunner, grab Kobu's handgun and cover me going out. I want to see what those monsters want."

The men moved with military precision. The front and rear gunners carried Kobu out of the bus and sprinted him into a building, too fast for the still-organizing DigiDestined to react and out of police reach with the right-side gunner still firing on them. Giman opened the passenger door and exited that way, gun drawn and covered from behind by the left-side gunner. The top-side gunner, still recovering from the disorientation of the near-crash, noticed the monsters and reaimed his cannon at Kabuterimon's head. He didn't fire though, not seeing any indication of attack or orders from Giman.

The right-side gunner stopped firing, seeing the police retreat behind their cars for safety. Giman rounded the bus corner to confront the two monsters, protected from behind by the left gunner. "What do you monsters want with me? You've already disrupted my plans quite enough, now get out of the way!" Giman yelled defiantly, gun ready to fire.

In front of the monsters, T.K. responded with courage to equal Giman's: "No way, Giman! We have you trapped between us and the police! Surrender or taste our enhanced power!"

"You frighten me not! Fire the laser cannon!" Giman yelled back. A shot emerged from the top-mounted laser cannon, but Kabuterimon ducked it, the beam sailing harmlessly into the sky.

"You've left us no choice then. Ready everyone?" T.K. stated.

"Ready!" Kari and Izzy answered at the same time.

"Digivolve!" T.K. shouted, he, Kari and Izzy all holding out their Digivices in front of them.

* * *

The scene flared with bright light, temporarily blinding anyone looking in that direction. Inside the brilliant flare were several Digimon changing into higher forms...

**101010011011010111000111**

**Gragh! Kabuterimon Digivolve to...**

**MegaKabuterimon!**

**110101001000111010100110**

**110001000101010101011001**

**Oh! Patamon Warp-Digivolve to...**

**MagnaAngemon!**

**100111010010001110111010**

**100100111011001110100100**

**Haha! Gatomon Digivolve to...**

**Angewomon!**

**1010111100100110110111011**

The reaction was immediate and profound when the light faded and the new forms came into full view. For the DigiDestined, it was pure joy: the Crest integration had worked, and now seemed to be permanent. For Giman and his followers, it was a mixture of dismay and shock. For the police, it was dumbfounding amazement.

"Wow, it actually worked!" was all the breathlessly thrilled Kari could get out, watching the Digivices glow and vibrate with the Crest power.

"Don't just stand there fools! Attack them!" Giman yelled, and immediately he and the gunner beside him began firing on the DigiDestined. MagnaAngemon and Stingmon moved down to cover, deflecting the bullets.

The laser gunner fired another blast, this time at Angewomon, but she deftly dodged it and then turned to counterattack.

"Would you like to do the honors?" MegaKabuterimon asked her. She gave a cocky smile back and said "It'll be my pleasure! **Heaven's Charm!**"

A cross-shaped beam of pink light emerged from her hands and shot down toward the gun. Before the gunner on top could respond, it impacted, blowing the gun apart and him off the bus. The top gunner landed on his back, knocked out, while the right-side gunner rushed out of the now-flaming bus to attend to his comrade. Within seconds, police had come out from behind their cars and took both gunners into custody.

MegaKabuterimon attacked the bus with a **Horn Buster,** causing it to explode in a fireball that knocked Giman and the former left-side gunner flat on their faces. MagnaAngemon and Stingmon moved in to grab them both, but Giman recovered just in time to blast them back. He and the gunner beside him turned and ran around the flaming ruins of the bus, only to encounter three armed and very angry police officers who ordered the two of them to drop to the ground, while behind those officers the former top and right-side gunners were being bundled into police vehicles.

Giman made a gut judgment and bolted to the right side of the road, only to be stopped in his tracks by MagnaAngemon. The Digimon opened his **Gate of Destiny** in front of Giman, who promptly ran across to the other side of the road as the police opened fire, the former gunner following behind. Both took cover behind a storefront and exchanged a few shots with police before the latter pulled back to avoid being sucked into the** Gate of Destiny **attack.

The DigiDestined ordered everyone to pull back from the Gate as it slowly pulled over and began to consume the wrecked remains of the bus. The powerful sucking force pulled the police cars a few feet down the road and shattered nearby windows, but otherwise affected little else, with everything else protected by the directional nature of the attack. The bus completely disappeared into the gate, which closed and collapsed into a large gold crystal roughly the size of a shoebox. MagnaAngemon grabbed this crystal for later examination and study.

* * *

Giman took advantage of a lull in the action to check his bullet count. Between him and the former gunner, they had four bullets to use, and with their supplies destroyed no way of getting more. They had to conserve bullets, the police would shoot until they ran out. Indeed, three officers were now closing on the storefront where they had taken refuge.

"Options, soldier! Give me options!" Giman said, nervously measuring how close the officers were coming to their position. He popped one bullet, shattering the storefront glass, and the police returned fire, forcing him to duck.

"I saw a parking garage a little ways back down this side of the street. You can jack a car, or hide if nothing else." the soldier replied.

"Good man! Cover me to the garage!" Giman replied. The police officers were close now, and the soldier popped both of the bullets left on his gun, dropping one of the officers. As the other two dropped to help their comrade, Giman fired his remaining bullet in a wild shot and sprinted out of the store, the soldier right behind him. One of the officers gave chase, firing shots that kept Giman and the soldier dodging. A few more shots came from the right in the police cars, shattering the plate glass of the storefront windows they were passing.

Giman and his soldier companion ducked into the garage, noticed the line of blocked cars waiting at the toll gate (caused by the previous joyriding), and hijacked the car at the front of the line by opening the unlocked back doors and forcing the driver out. The driver fled to safety and the chasing police officer arrived, firing into the vehicle and hitting the soldier in the side. The soldier tumbled out the vehicle as Giman floored the accelerator, smashed through the toll barrier and nearly ran over the police officer as he got on the road and sped past the police cars back the direction he had previously come from. The chase had resumed.

"He's getting away! After him!" Ken announced, as the Digimon scooped up their human partners and took off after the speeding car. The police also began to give chase on the hijacked car, windshield shattered and tires squealing as it zoomed further and further down the city street...

* * *

Giman was racing the jacked car as fast as he could keep his eyes open in the wind blowing in from the broken windshield, which was to say "not fast enough". The enhanced monsters were closing in on him fast, as were the police. One high-powered attack to his rear-end, then another, forced him to keep swerving back and forth to avoid taking a hit, adding to his driving problems.

As the monsters and police cars loomed ever larger in the rear-view mirrors of the car, he paid less attention to the road in front of him, and the only alert he got of an impending roadblock was the sudden appearance of a huge glowing thing in front of him. He slammed the car brakes, aiming to make the right turn in the intersection, but instead spun around a couple of times and nearly hitting the glowing figure blocking the road. The car stopped, facing right but toward the pursuers as well, and Giman hurriedly took the right road, only to have another glowing figure appear blocking that direction as well. He stopped (with more control this time), put the car into reverse and sped back in his tracks, going into the left road and blowing past two police cars trying to block that road off. Meanwhile, the DigiDestined had stopped pursuing, surprised by the first figure that appeared.

"Garudamon?" Izzy exclaimed, seeing the huge "bird-man" Digimon standing in the middle of the road and Sora waving enthusiastically from the ground. She flashed a victory "V" as her fellow DigiDestined approached, as did the police, who had stopped just before Giman spun out.. Tai, previously standing by MetalGreymon (the other figure that had blocked the right road), also came out to meet them, ordering MetalGreymon to Digivolve to WarGreymon and go after Giman. Somewhat to the others' surprise, he did so (something not previously possible to do) and sped off down the left road behind a police car which continued to chase him.

Tai and Sora hooked up with the others, explaining that not only did the Crests work but the previous Warp-Digivolving limitations for WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon had been removed (ie, you could now go straight from Ultimate to Mega without reverting and warping). While the DigiDestined talked, the shell-shocked police officers came by to ask what the heck had been going on.

Giman, meanwhile, had still been speeding in reverse, but had built up enough of a lead on the pursuers to stop and reverse his direction back to forwards. As soon as he got going forwards again, he found himself trapped in a maze-like complex of alleys with a police car and heavily armored "monster" not far behind. Concentrating on making the tight turns, he jumped when he heard something suddenly "thump" heavily on the rear end of the car, shattering the rear window and cracking the side windows.

Giman risked a glance at the rear-view mirror and saw yet another "monster", a "werewolf" with the same white-and-blue-stripe coloring he had seen in monsters he had faced before. This "monster", WereGarurumon, began crawling across the top of the car with ominous thudding and scratching. WereGarurumon got over to the front of the car and peeked in to grab Giman, but Giman knocked him in the face with the empty gun, then swerved suddenly to throw the Digimon off the car.

WereGarurumon bounced on the road a couple of times as Matt rushed up to him. The Digimon quickly got up and shook off the impacts as Matt told him he tried his best and that he should Digivolve to join WarGreymon in the chase. WereGarurumon did Digivolve to MetalGarurumon and took off to join WarGreymon.

Giman now felt he had lost any control of the situation. He made one blind turn after another to try to shake his pursuers, not realizing he was heading straight for a seawall. By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late to avoid; the car smashed through the thin barricade and plunged straight into the bay. As it filled with water, Giman struggled to swim to the surface.

The pursuit stopped at where the hole had been made in the seawall. As WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon looked over the bubbling water, MetalGarurumon said, "Well I guess that's the end of that. He's not going to come up again."

* * *

_Time: 11:15 am_

"So let me get this straight. You kids came up with this plan all by yourselves? Improvised it all?" the police sergeant was asking, scribbling notes on his scratchpad.

"Improvisation is our specialty." Tai answered, supported by a nodding Ken, the two chosen to give the formal police statement of supporting their chase of Giman. Behind loomed the figures of WarGreymon and Stingmon.

The police sergeant nervously licked his lips and said "Well, we, uh... appreciate the help. Just please be careful about collateral damage, we don't want a whole bunch of lawsuits to deal with."

"Yes sir, we will sir." Ken replied with a salute.

All around was a buzz of media and tourist attention at the other DigiDestined members and their evolved partners (only Garudamon and MegaKabuterimon had reverted back after the chase was over), generating pictures and video that set Tokyo abuzz for days afterward. Meanwhile, in the nearby bay, Joe and Cody had arrived to help police find and pull up the wrecked car, and, incidentally, establish what exactly happened to Giman. The hulking form of Zudomon cruised the surface under Joe's direction, generating some attention from both land and sea, while Cody and Submarimon had dived underwater to directly locate the submerged vehicle.

The walkie-talkie on Joe's belt crackled with static. Reaching it to respond was a bit of a challenge because Joe had only his right hand to work with, the left hand keeping a firm grip on one of the spikes of Zudomon's shell so as to prevent rolling off it and into the water.

"What was that? Didn't copy." Joe spoke into the walkie-talkie.

"We found it! It's lodged nose first at the bottom, the water's filled it completely. I don't see anyone down there..." Cody's voice crackled over the walkie-talkie.

"That's fine Cody. Head straight up to the surface so that the crane operators know where to drop their hook."

"Roger, surfacing now." Cody affirmed, and a few seconds later the sleek shape of Submarimon with Cody in the "cockpit" emerged on the surface. The hood of the "cockpit" opened and Cody assumed a kneeling position, waving in the direction of Joe and Zudomon.

Joe noticed this and waved back. Now within shouting distance, Joe told Cody and Submarimon to stay where they were until the crane was positioned over them, then to come ashore. Cody shouted back an acknowledgment, and then Joe ordered Zudomon to swim to a spot near where the crane was positioned onshore. Zudomon, with a surprising amount of enthusiasm in his voice, said "it would be his pleasure" and slowly worked his way down the shoreline to the crane's location.

"Hey look, I think your friends found the car." the police sergeant said to Tai and Ken when he noticed Zudomon by the crane. Sure enough, when they looked, there was Joe pointing out Submarimon's location to the crane operator, who began moving his machine into reach of the spot previously mentioned.

Tai, Ken, WarGreymon and Stingmon watched as the crane was slowly positioned over Cody and Submarimon's position. The crane began to lower, and Submarimon moved himself and Cody out of the way. At this point, the police sergeant, Matt, MetalGarurumon, Izzy and Tentomon joined the watching crowd as the crane hook entered the water. A minute passed, then another. The lowering stopped, then began to reverse.

Slowly the cable came up out of the water, and with a dramatic outpouring of water so did the wrecked car. With all the windows broken it had flooded quickly, leaving no air pockets for anyone to breathe should they have gone down with the car.

"Rats, looks like we missed the big one again. Search along the shoreline, maybe he can be found while he's still recovering from that swim." the police sergeant ordered, and the DigiDestined around him split into two groups to make a search down the shoreline in pursuit of "the big catch", Giman Uirusu himself...

* * *

And what of Giman, you ask? Where did he end up, you wonder?

As the car dropped head-first towards the bottom of the bay, Giman had escaped out through the broken back window, swimming in the upward direction and along the shoreline away from the splash site. Just before his air ran out, he broke the surface gasping. Treading water to conserve energy, he worked his way down the shoreline, away from the congregating throng of media and curious on-lookers, and found a spot screened by bushes running parallel to the shore. He crawled up out of the water, exhausted, shivering cold and furiously angry with those monsters that kept messing up his plans. He took cover in some of the bushes when he spotted the large turtle-shelled form of Zudomon patrolling the water.

Cold and wet all over, he could only hope the ignominious end to his "joyride" had not compromised its real intent. For you see, it was nothing more than an elaborate distraction. The real plan had been to use the "joyride" to distract police attention while the _AS Sea Wolf _had snuck inshore with the captured supercomputer parts taken from the _Crayfish_. Once the parts were on shore at the Tsukiji Fish Market, they would be delivered to Hub X under guise of fish shipments by a loyal, anonymous supplier the following morning. Giman could only hope enough time had been bought to get the parts offloaded before the police got suspicious. If not, all was probably lost.

Giman looked around. He would stay here for the moment. Once he stopped feeling shivering cold, he would ditch the paramilitary uniform and filter over to Tsukiji in plain clothes. There, the soldiers in plain clothes would help him commandeer a fishing vessel and transport him to the _Crayfish._ Going to the sea, going underground, was the only chance his dreams had to survive...

* * *

_Time: 8:00pm_

_Place: Somewhere in the ocean, far off the Japanese islands..._

In the darkness of night, two boats were running side-by-side, having as few lights on as needed to help avoid detection. One was the _AS Sea Wolf, _its gun turrets reflecting the faint gleam of the ship lights and the moon in the night sky. The other was a fishing vessel, temporarily taken out of service for maintenance but hastily stolen from Tsukiji Fish Market by Giman and some crewmembers of the _Sea Wolf_. The _Sea Wolf _and the stolen fishing vessel both flew Ankokuwa pennants over the Japanese ensigns, though these pennants had only been raised once the ships had cleared Tokyo Harbor.

On board the stolen fishing vessel, given the temporary designation _AS Tsukiji_, was Giman along with a skeleton crew of seaworthy Ankokuwa members. Giman had managed to elude police detection and get to Tsukiji, whereupon the _Sea Wolf _ crewmembers let him into the market complex late in the afternoon. Taking direct command of operations, he pulled a skeleton complement of crew from the _Sea Wolf_ to commandeer the _Tsukiji_, then snuck both vessels out in the middle of the fishing fleets leaving for the night. Once out of Tokyo Bay, both vessels pulled out the main movement and headed for an out-of-the-way rendezvous point with the _SS Crayfish._

Giman surveyed the dark sea in front of him from the _Tsukiji _bridge, only the navigator around to hear his thoughts. The Ankokuwa boss had long since realized that staying on land was a dangerous proposition, so he intended to turn the captured _Crayfish_ into his new base, officially designated the _AS Giman._ This floating base would not only be physically isolated from the monsters that threatened to undo his dreams, but also easier to keep out of the hands of the Japanese and United States warships currently hunting for the captured cargo freighter.

He wouldn't abandon land operations completely, though. The current headquarters would be slowly decommissioned in favor of the floating freighter once he established control, but Hub X remained as a substantial land asset. The security of Hub X was a proposition that had become decidedly more dicey by the unknown status of Giman's second-in-command; if the police had captured Kobu, then his entire organization could be compromised, and the monsters would not stop until he had been captured or destroyed as well. But Giman had heard no news of Kobu's capture, and he was optimistic that Kobu would soon be united with him once again.

Giman's thoughts were interrupted by a crackle from the ship's radio. He picked up the handset and answered the call given by the _Sea Wolf'_s captain, indicating the ships were approaching the rendezvous point. Giman answered with an affirmative and ordered the _Tsukiji_ navigator to fall in behind the_ Sea Wolf._

The _Tsukiji_ slowed, letting the _Sea Wolf _get ahead a little distance before pulling behind the _Sea Wolf_'s stern, the gunboat's rear gun illuminated in the _Tsukiji_'s headlights. Matching the _Sea Wolf_'s heading, the _Tsukiji _was lead to the rendezvous point, and a hulking shape, dimly lit in the night, emerged in view: the_ SS_ _Crayfish_. It was currently manned by somewhere between 15 and 20 Ankokuwa members, former agents along the U.S. West Coast plus a few former civilian crewmembers who had been forced to accept membership at gunpoint to help run the vessel (the rest of the civilian crew having been set adrift in a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean).

Giman now radioed the _Sea Wolf_ captain to make a slow circle around the _Crayfish_ to check for other vessels in the area while the _Tsukiji_ approached to transfer Giman to the _Crayfish._ The _Sea Wolf _peeled off, leaving the _Tsukiji _alone to slowly approach the hulking cargo vessel.

Giman then switched channels and radioed the _Crayfish _directly: "This is the _AS Tsukiji_ under command of Giman Uirusu. Come in _Crayfish,_ over."

The radio crackled back with a voice having a distinct San Francisco accent: "This is the captain of the _SS Crayfish. _Good to hear your voice, Boss. We've been out here anxiously waiting for your arrival. Are you transferring to this vessel?"

"Affirmative. Standby for the _Tsukiji_'s approach, prepare for immediate transfer."

"Roger. I'll get the crew on it right away."

"One more thing, captain. Upon my transfer, I will have immediate command of the _Crayfish_ under the designation of_ AS Giman_. You are to take command of the _Tsukiji _at your earliest convenience and ship out for supplies as soon as you are prepared."

"Understood. I'll be seeing you soon, Boss. _Crayfish _out."

Giman returned the radio handset to its position. Seeing the towering vessel he would soon command in the _Tsukiji_'s headlights, he felt sure that good fortune, or at least no more bad fortune, would befall him and his organization anytime soon...

**What lies in store next for the Ankokuwa and the DigiDestined? Stay tuned for Episode 5 of the DDLA to find out!...**


End file.
